Brave Enough
by scotchandsoda
Summary: Does the offer still stand? Sequel to you're only human, but can be read as a standalone. *and yes, I completely suck at thinking of titles.*


Sequel to 'You're only human' but could also be read as a standalone. (: Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I tried it nicely, you know? But they still wouldn't give me those holy rights.

. ~*~.

"I know how you feel" she said, trying to reassure their heavily shaking unsub, who was unmistakably pointing a gun at a silently crying seven year old girl. "You feel as though no one understands you."

The young men nodded, close to tears that would be running over his cheeks in a short matter of time.

"As though you're alone in this dark world, where no one on these filthy streets can do you any good." She watched as the man threatened to break. "But what has that little girl said to you, that makes you think she will do you wrong?"

The unsub tried to steady his shaking hands around the gun, but his nerves were taking the best of him. And as Emily saw, it wouldn't take long before he would break down his defenses.

"Nothing right? So why don't you let her go, and I'll stay here to keep you company?"

The unsub seemed to think about it, but Emily already saw there was no argument left. She watched as the unsub slowly let the girl go, who quickly turned to her parents in the back of the room and threw herself in her mother's arms.

The team had been working on this case for days now. Nine random people, all murdered through a slashed throat and all dumped at the same dried creek. The profile was clear; there were no real indicators that they were dealing with a cold killer. The serrated wounds indicated that the unsub had trouble with killing his victims, but he felt like he was obligated to do it. He was emotionally disturbed, and maybe depressed.

Emily had gone out to check on one of their suspects. She was supposed to go with Dave, but with Morgan being sick and JJ being on a six day leave, they were two men short. So Emily had gone alone and found a situation she'd rather have not dealt with alone. The suspect was being held in the back of the room with his wife, and his daughter was held tightly against a nineteen year old man who was pointing a gun at her head. It quickly became clear that the suspect had become the victim of the real unsub, and that's when Emily found herself trying to convince the young man to let the girl go.

It turned out to be easier than expected, as she'd been at it for roughly seven minutes and the unsub was already close to breaking down. "I'm just going to put my gun down okay? So it will be easier to talk."

'_Emily'_ she heart Dave's faint voice through the Bluetooth piece in her ear. She'd dialed his number after she'd found 'the situation', knowing that Dave was in the precinct along with Reid working victimology. He'd quickly understood what she was doing and was on his way to the house as we speak.

Emily saw that the unsub had lowered his gun, which he'd been pointing at her after letting the girl go, but hadn't put it down yet. "Tell me about this dark world" she said, deliberately using _'this'_ instead of _'you're'_.

She saw his doubts; doubts that she wouldn't understand him. But the doubts lost as he was burning inside and needed to let it all out.

"Humanity is a joke" he said, expressing an amount of disgust. "All we do is screw with things. Technology, in the guise of doing research. It ruins everything. And we all go with it; we all encourage them to darken this world with their theories."

"And you had to stop them" Emily stated, playing the game their unsub had started.

"Yes" his voice began to get shaky. "But no one understood me. They all had the same look in their eyes, like I was ruining their otherwise perfect day. So I had to make them understand. They all rushed around the streets with their cell phones. Unaware of anything else."

'_Emily, I'm almost there with backup.' _Dave understood where Emily was going, but why in the heck had she put down her gun and weakened her own defense?

"They were using technology like what? A cell phone, a PDA? Or a gun maybe?" She saw she'd surprised him. "Considering a gun is a modern weapon."

Dave, who heard everything over the phone, understood why she'd put down the gun, it was all in motion to weaken his defense and to keep him occupied till he would arrive with backup. But it still was a reckless act.

"No, that's… that's different. That's just…" the young man stuttered out. Emily had completely thrown him off.

"Why is that different? You're using the technology you're disgusted with."

"You don't understand" the man all but screamed. "You don't…"

"Sure, I do" she interrupted him. "You're disgusted by technologies, while all the same you use a gun. And I'm sure you have a radio or TV at home, do you drive a car?"

"No, I don't have a car." The unsub sounded desperate to prove Emily's point wrong. "They make you lose sight of the world, and you just don't…. you don't understand at all." He was starting to get angry, just what Emily wanted. If they'd take him in now, it shouldn't be hard to get a confession out of him.

Just when the Unsub was about to raise his gun again, Rossi marched in with a squad of police officers behind him who, without much force, unarmed the unsub and arrested him.

.~*~.

"You should know better than to _'Emily'_ me." She stated, as they were outside again.

A déjà vu feeling washed over Dave at hearing that line. "I should, but damn, that was close Emily. If we'd gotten there a little later you wouldn't be here right now."

Emily snorted. "Why don't you go ahead and make sure that family is okay, Rossi"

He chuckled as he saw a black SUV arrive at the scene. "I'll do that, but you're going to have to deal with Hotch." He smiled slyly and quickly went about searching for the family.

"Prentiss." Emily winced, Aaron lately had only called her 'Prentiss' when he was mad. "What did you think you were doing?"

"Acting on a well-thought-about-before-doing-it plan?" she tried, but without much luck. Hotch had clearly already worked out what he thought she was doing.

"Putting down your gun, Prentiss? He could've just shot you."

"You know just as well as I did, that he wasn't going to shoot. He's emotionally disturbed and I already had him on breaking point." Emily knew she was right. She might not have thought about her plan, but it worked out, didn't it?

"Emily, I'm proud that you got the son of a bitch. But don't ever scare me like that again, you hear me?" He had gotten much closer to Emily lately, and he wasn't about to lose something that hadn't even really started yet, which he was planning on starting tonight though.

"I'll try" Emily smiled. If it had been anyone else she already would've barked that she'd made the right call, but she'd gotten closer to Hotch lately and she liked his company to much to bark at him. And Hotch made it pretty bearable to get criticized.

Hotch smiled. She was being stubborn and he _loved_ the look of her when she was stubborn. "I still owe you an offer, you know?"

"Yes, you do." Emily hadn't forgotten about that yet. He had comforted her that night, and knocked some senses into her.

"Well, as a start of paying that off, I offer you dinner at my place." _He was nervous._ "I'll make chicken pasta." _When was the last time he'd been nervous? _

But Emily was already smiling. "I'd love that." And she really did, hoping some result would come out of it.

Hotch let out a silent sigh of relief. "Let's finish this case, then."

.~*~.

Hotch was a strong person. He could stay calm in the most nerve wracking situations. But God, this was not going like planned. Everything had gone well, until the point where, out of the blue, his fire alarm started going at it. He'd been so busy trying to shut it up that he hadn't noticed the pasta started boiling. With an hour left before Emily came, he had to start over again.

When, exactly on time, Emily knocked on his door, he'd finally finished the pasta and was just perfecting the sauce. "Emily" he smiled. "Come in. I'm almost finished, so you can take a seat."

Emily grinned at the neatly sat table as she took place at one of the seats. "You really put work into it."

"Of course" Aaron announced proudly as he put the pasta, with the sauce, on the table. "Couldn't let you sit at a bare table, now could I?"

Emily blushed. "Nope, you really couldn't."

The evening went well, despite how it started, and Aaron enjoyed seeing Emily eat.

"This is really delicious" she said. "I didn't know you could cook like this."

"There are a lot of things you don't know about me." Aaron smiled slyly as he once again made Emily blush.

After they finished dinner, they took their wine to the couch to watch a, very girly and very un-Hotch-like, movie. Aaron watched intrigued as Emily laughed at one of the funny parts of the movie. He loved to see her laugh. _Love. _It was a word he'd recently started connecting to with Emily. He couldn't help it anymore. He'd started paring up with her more often, and he knew she'd noticed. The whole team probably noticed. You really had to be a blind man, or woman, not to notice it. He hadn't felt like this since Haley. But really, those two couldn't be compared. Haley had been his high school crush, the crush he'd married. And Emily, yes what was Emily? His best friend, the one he'd leaned back on when he needed to. She was not just a crush, that one was for sure.

"You're far away." Aaron had been so deep in thought, that he hadn't even noticed he'd been staring at her. "Feel like telling me what's on your mind?"

Without thinking, spontaneous and prompt, he leaned forward. "How about I'll show you" he whispered.

His lips on hers were soft. It took her a moment to realize what was happening and she felt Aaron draw back again. "Wow" she said in a soft tone.

"I-I'm sorry" Aaron stuttered. He never stuttered! What did this woman do to him?

"Don't say that" Emily said before leaning in again, needing more of those soft lips.

As soon as the need for oxygen overpowered the need for his lips, she drew back. "Tell me you're sure about this" she whispered with her forehead against Aaron's, needing to be sure. She'd been hurt to many times in her life.

He carefully caressed her cheek. "Emily Prentiss, do you really still need confirmation?"

Emily chuckled, her eyes still only half opened. She knew something had been happening tonight, but she didn't expected this. Not that she regretted it happening. No, she really didn't regret anything. "No." She smiled. "But there are some other things I need right now."

Aaron grinned. He may have not thought very carefully about tonight, but he definitely liked the outcome. And if it was any preview of what was about to come, than tonight was going to become more and more interesting.

.~*~.

I hope you liked the ending, I've been changing it forever until I decided I should just upload it. Thanks to hot4cullenmen for being my beta, she's amazing! (:

Hi! I'm Katie (aka hot4cullenmen). I loved it! Your grammar is amazing and it is getting better by the day! Well, press the little review link below and let her know what you thought! Toodles!


End file.
